Abstract: Relates to various aspects of American foreign and domestic policy. Television program sponsored by the Hoover Institution
on War, Revolution and Peace. Selected transcripts and shows are available online on the
Uncommon Knowledge website (
http://www.hoover.org/publications/uncommon-knowledge ).

Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives

Languages:
English

Access

Collection is open for research.

The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.

Acquired between 2001 and 2011. For the broadcast years, most of the videotapes and audio tapes were acquired directly from
the
Uncommon Knowledge production staff in a series of increments. Some tapes were obtained from storage at the Hoover Press. Additional videotapes
were acquired from the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco, California and the PBS Media Library in Alexandria, Virginia
in 2009. For the webcast years, video programs are received directly from Stanford Video. Transcripts were captured from various
websites by Hoover Archives staff. Transcripts were captured by Hoover Archives staff from the
Uncommon Knowledge website (
http://www.hoover.org/publications/uncommon-knowledge ) and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php ) since December 2008.
Uncommon Knowledge is still being broadcast; video will continue to be deposited at the Hoover Institution Archives.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.

Related Material

Peter Robinson papers, Hoover Institution Archives

Historical Note

Uncommon Knowledge is a public policy talk show produced by the Hoover Institution. It features Hoover research fellow Peter M. Robinson discussing
national and international economic, political, and social issues with political leaders, distinguished scholars, leading
journalists, and others. William F. Buckley Jr. designated it as the successor to his television program,
Firing Line.

Uncommon Knowledge was broadcast as a weekly half-hour television program from 1996 to June 2005. The first four seasons were broadcast on KTEH-TV,
a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) affiliate in San Jose, California; beginning with the Winter/Spring 2000 season it was
carried by PBS stations throughout the United States. It was also carried internationally by National Public Radio (NPR) Worldwide.

Beginning in 2006,
Uncommon Knowledge became an exclusive on the web, offered through National Review Online, FORA.tv, and the Hoover Institution website. The
unedited webcasts are typically between 30 and 40 minutes in duration.

During the broadcast years, each program in the season was assigned a sequential number, and with each new season, the numbering
started with the next even hundred:

1996: 1-13

1997: 101-113

Winter 1998: 201-213

1998-1999: 301-326

1999-2000: 401-426

2000-2001: 501-539

2001-2002: 601-639

2002-2003: 701-739

2003-2004: 801-839

2004-2005: 901-939

After the program shifted to webcasting, the PBS program numbering was discontinued and Hoover Archives staff assigned each
program a sequential number:

2006: WUK06 01-04

2007: WUK07 01-10

2008: WUK08 01-24

2009: WUK09 01-25

2010: WUK10 01-25

Host Peter M. Robinson writes about business and politics, and edits the Hoover Institution's quarterly journal, the
Hoover Digest. He has written three books:
How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan Books, 2003);
It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP (Warner Books, 2000); and the best-selling business book
Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA (Warner Books, 1994; still available in paperback).

In 1979, he graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he majored in English. He went on to study politics, philosophy,
and economics at Oxford University, graduating in 1982. Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to
1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George H. W. Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter
to President Ronald Reagan. He wrote the historic Berlin Wall address in which President Reagan called on General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"

After the White House, Robinson attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where the journal he kept formed
the basis for
Snapshots from Hell. He graduated with an MBA in 1990. He then spent a year in New York City with Fox Television, reporting to the owner of the
company, Rupert Murdoch. He spent a second year in Washington, D.C., with the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he
served as the director of the Office of Public Affairs, Policy Evaluation, and Research. In 1993, Robinson joined the Hoover
Institution.

Scope and Content Note

The collection includes videorecordings, audio recordings, and transcripts of programs. Most recordings represent edited programs,
though a few of the webcasts are unedited. Unedited webcast versions do not have lower third graphics (name/title) nor a Hoover
watermark, and have a 4:3 aspect ratio (vs. 16:9 pillarbox for edited shows). Videotape formats in the collection include
VHS, Betacam SP, Digital Betacam, one-inch videotape, D3, DVCAM, miniDV, and DVD. Sound recording formats are limited to audio
CD. Transcripts are file-based (RTF or PDF).

Full descriptions of all programs are taken verbatim from the
Uncommon Knowledge website. Dates listed for each program are the date the program was taped. Where the
Uncommon Knowledge web site information differs from the label on a video tape, the label information has been used.

The two Collections of Programs series consist of programs grouped around particular themes by the
Uncommon Knowledge staff.

The one-inch videotapes usually contain more than one program per reel. For unidentified programs, the information in the
container list is taken from the labels on the videotapes. They may contain clips from multiple programs.